rhd fox

[tubbs]

Anyone know how many 1980 factory rhd foxes were made for the uk ?

[negusm]

nope

[81Mustang]

I am guessing not many.... Dont got any numbers though

[Ausfox]

Hi Tubbs, would probably think that there were no Factory Manufactured Right Hand Drive cars made for the UK or any where else.

Have been looking for Ford RHD Mustang info for about 20 years and have come to the conclusion that the only Manufacturer involved RHD Mustangs were the 120 or so 2001/2 Tickford Cobras from Ford Australia.

Over the years, you could Special Order a Mustang from an Australian Ford dealer and car would be imported by Ford Australia but the Conversion to right hand drive would be done by a local Converter.

This was before there were Safety Rules and Regulations and Government Standards.

I used to work for a good friend of mine who did many Mustangs (66 to 73)that ended up being sold with Ford Australia ID Plates on them.

Would probably think there was a similar system in the UK, due to the high costs of retooling to RHD for such a limited market. Only about 300 cars are known to have been sold here this way.

Ford Australia are supposed to have built a RHD Four eye in the late seventies when they used this design to develop the XD Falcon, but is believed to have been crushed.

Two Pics of local RHD dashes on cars currently listed for sale.

Cheers from Australia
Former Resident of Gosport Hants and Bishopton Scotland.

[GTJerry]

Whoa - this is very interesting! I've driven a few RHDs with manual transmissions years ago in Trinidad but they were all small, 4-cylinder cars. They were a challenge for this Yankee - I kept switching on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signals. Wonder how many gears I would have missed with one of these 4-eyes.

Cool AMX, by the way. Could you add an interior pic of your RHD 91 to your photo album?

[cipher]

Is it me or is there something funny about the dashpad in that vert?

Mike J.

[81Mustang]

I see that... There is like a point/ lip on the passagners side... whats up with that?

[Mustang Marty]

I know when I sit in the passenger seat the footwell seems smaller. I bet it would be down right crowded with pedals installed

[tubbs]

Hi Tubbs, would probably think that there were no Factory Manufactured Right Hand Drive cars made for the UK or any where else.

Have been looking for Ford RHD Mustang info for about 20 years and have come to the conclusion that the only Manufacturer involved RHD Mustangs were the 120 or so 2001/2 Tickford Cobras from Ford Australia.

Over the years, you could Special Order a Mustang from an Australian Ford dealer and car would be imported by Ford Australia but the Conversion to right hand drive would be done by a local Converter.

This was before there were Safety Rules and Regulations and Government Standards.

I used to work for a good friend of mine who did many Mustangs (66 to 73)that ended up being sold with Ford Australia ID Plates on them.

Would probably think there was a similar system in the UK, due to the high costs of retooling to RHD for such a limited market. Only about 300 cars are known to have been sold here this way.

Ford Australia are supposed to have built a RHD Four eye in the late seventies when they used this design to develop the XD Falcon, but is believed to have been crushed.

Two Pics of local RHD dashes on cars currently listed for sale.

Cheers from Australia
Former Resident of Gosport Hants and Bishopton Scotland.

thank you for that it is well done with p/s rack and the dash is as in your pics,
will post pics asap/

[Ausfox]

I see that... There is like a point/ lip on the passagners side... whats up with that?

Have looked at this car and the dash is very poorly done, no wonder it has been for sale for over year.
On some of the better conversions, it is very hard to pick that it is not Factory.

This is the dash on my 1991 Convertible which was converted in 1992.

[stangcrazy85]

i never though i would see the day man thats crazy though

[GTJerry]

Looks like a tight fit for the accelerator - no problem with the accelerator hitting the right side of the footwell?

[Ausfox]

Tubbs, Sorry to have hijacked your thread, with dash pics.
All of the Mustangs Fox Body, S95 and S197 based cars that are converted here use a 1979 TE Ford Cortina 6 cylinder Ghia Power steering Rack which is dimensionaly the same as the Mustang Rack except in RHD form.

Makes the bottom half of the steering the easiest part of the conversion with no Bump Steer problems with a simple change of brackets.

Have found that the biggest give away to tell a conversion is usually the wiring loom it never looks factory and is messy and wiring is usually all one colour.

Looking forward to pics of your dash.

[PON13]

Just flicking thru the net and found this from 2010.
The fox that ford Aus did didn't get crushed.
It's in my driveway. It's my daily driver.

[vintageracer]

Just flicking thru the net and found this from 2010.
The fox that ford Aus did didn't get crushed.
It's in my driveway. It's my daily driver.

Welcome Mate!

Pictures of your rare fox would be great for all of us to see.

Have a great day!

[PON13]

[PON13]

[PON13]

[xctasy]

Anyone know how many 1980 factory rhd foxes were made for the uk ?

From records somwhere about 18 actual model year RHD conversion Mustangs. More were planned, but the cost and expense ment that many personal imports stayed LHD. The RHD conversion was value added by Ford SVE. Cost, from £8,000 to £13,000, included the RHD conversion in the Press release pound sterling sticker price, but LHD cars could be personal imports without the conversion. It had some cost and inventory prune backs from late 1979 to 1982 (door mirrors, tail lights) when the last RHD Mustang conversion was done by Ford UK for a new Mustang. Australian Wheels magazine in April 1982 said that the English were now looking at "at birth RHD" Australian LTD's. Stanadard parts were supposed to be Capri Mark III tail lights sharded with the Aussie Import FC Ford LTD, but modified Escort Mark III taillights were also used. The automatic shifter was a common European and US item, but the imports somtimes got taller automatic shifters for some reason, probably UK Type Aprroval arm room to center console issues which the assessors loved to request changes for. On the LTD, they filed the door trims, and added foam finishing to remove the sharp ends of the Aussie dashboard.

Later on in 1983 Modern Motor magazine, even the FC Ford LTD 351 imports only shifted 50 units, at £16,000, they were hard to shift.



All later ones were personal imports like this 1986


As AusFox says

Confirming the TRW/Tristar powered steering rack and pinion is the RHD conversion steering system. The 2001-2003 Mustang Cobra had the same steering rack, used in about 150 conversions done by Tickford for Ford Australia.

The steering gear was a white box item, essentially it had shared elements in Ford and Holden cars new for 1978. Australian TE and TF Ford Cortina Sixes (1977 TO 1982) had it as an option, and Holden when converting the Opel Commodore used a similar varaint to it on the 1978 VB Commodore set up. Its basically similar to the Opel Manta rack and pinion, which was sometimes used in RHD swaps in the UK.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...%28UK-model%29

......I know, it's difficult looking for pictures on the net for inspiration or to work out how it 'should' look as the dash is all over the place compared to the US LHD ones. The centre console is obviously the same, which then means the bottom of the dash doesn't line up with it properly in mine. I have no idea what radios were fitted in the US ones but these have all been made to allow a standard ISO single DIN stereo in and perhaps thats why its all a strange shape and doesn't line up. I have no idea why the shifter lever is different (the box, centre console and I believe the handle on the end is the same as LHD US?) or why the HVAC controls are recessed (only thing I can guess is that because they built only a few of them as like prototypes, the fan unit and flaps controlling the windscreen demist etc are quite basic, and so shorter cables or cable routings forced it to be in that position?
Also note that in this the fascias are REAL wood... just some cheap pulp stuff with the backs milled out and recessed and then veneered on the front with a little grey pinstripe. I guess this was easier to do low volume than recreating the plastic ones to fit the new layout. The bulb cover shown in the last few images for the handbrake/seatbelt etc warnings is actually off a later 84-86 grey fascia dash as the ones that were fitted on mine had been attacked with a screwdriver at some point...

After 1973, UK Type approval became very strict, although it still allowed Morris Marinas and Itals to burn your fingers on the light switches. One thing its really hot on, is it requires a strict 'no fouling' rule for protuberances. On Australian Ford LTD imports (sold from 1981 to 1982 in batches of less than 50) the HVAC had to be padded up with foam surrounds, the Carter Thermoquad 9800 4-bbl had to have anti fuel leak baffles to stop gasoline coming out in a roll over, and all the doors had to have the edges filled back because they were too sharp, and would cut the vehicle assessor. The auto selector is the common C3/C4 T bar used on everything from 1968 to 1986, but yours is longer than standard, most likely an AVO type approval change to stop the LHD shift applique being covered in a RHD instillation. The funny thing is that lhd, or RHD, aside from the knob operation, the base indicator graticule was the same.



There were three kinds of 1979 to 1982 rear backup and indicator lamp colors, but none of them had European Economic Community or UK/British type approval on the Mustang lights. So Capri III or Escort Mk III tail lights with EEC/UK British Std stamps were used. The Aussie import FC Ford '5.8 litre' LTD used the same tail lights and door mirrors as the UK Mustang.

The amber lights were Japanese approved, and they had Australian ZJ 1979-1982 Ford Fairlane inserts from the factory for some models.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...urning-JPN-ese

The low production rate through Ford AVO and then SVE made rhd conversions for the Lincoln Mark and Mustang uneconomic. There were three different types of UK market rear vision mirror (one Italian one kind I cannot identify, then the Italian Torino from Fiat XI/9 /Lancia MonteCarlo/Scorpion, then the Cortina 80[MkIV]/Granada MkIII).

My JDM Mustang had 79-82 Aussie Ford Fairlane amber inserts, and pre production Lincoln Continental Compact rear vision mirrors on 80-82 Thunderbird/ XR7 Cougar door mirror swings.


See also JDM Left Hand Drive, and other UK RHD conversions.


Gavin Green from the Australian Wheels magazine in 1982 descibed all the RHD Type approval requirements for the United Kigndom Fords, and it lists the tail lights, fold back wing mirrors, and a prevoius history of RHD US and Australian Ford coversions by English SVE (Special Vehicle Engineering).

Europeans generally didn't worry about the EU inspired tail lights, fold back wing mirrors and interior pertrubance regulations under Common Market rules if they were private imports.


http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...-project/page2

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...tang-thread%29

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...-DRIVE-MUSTANG

http://www.mustang.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=17834.0

And more on Ausfox's power steering info http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...44#post1827644

[86-TC/SVO]

Ron Minogue (Kylie Minogue's father) has/used to have an 84 2A Mustang SVO that was rhd in Australia. I'm not sure of who/when the conversion had been done.